History immigration blog

2017年5月17日星期三

In this unit, we learned about foreign policies and relationships among countries. Each of us made presentations about relationships between the United States and different countries. I mainly researched about the policies and relationships between China and America back to the 20th century; from the second Sino-Japanese War until the peaceful reunification policy with Taiwan in 1982. The United States has intervened to aid the nationalist party since the second Sino-Japanese war in 1931. Their primary goal was to help the nationalist party defend against the Japanese invaders. They also wanted the nationalist party to win in the Chinese civil war. After the second Sino-Japanese War, the communist party successfully established the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in Tiananmen Square in 1949. The relationship created a complete deadlock between America and China, because the United States didn't want to recognize PRC and the nationalist party was occupying Taiwan. There was technically one China, but both the nationalist party and the communist party wanted to consider themselves the representative of China. The relationship between America and China finally improved after many policies, such as Ping Pong Diplomacy, Shanghai Communiqué Meeting and the economic reform cooperations. In addition to the China-America relationship that I presented to my class, I’ve also learned about the China-Tibet relationship and China-Vietnam relationship from my classmates. So I think this unit was really about the multicultural relations, and these presentations were done so successfully that all of us have learned something meaningful and reliable.

In this unit, we continued to learn about the early wave of immigration to America and the Liberal Order. Back in the 19th century, the enormous railroad project led early Chinese immigrants to America. These laborers worked hard and didn't request high wages. Therefore, they took many Americans’ jobs with their predominant traits— cheap and diligent. The low employment rate of Americans and the low wage level caused economic circumstance to decline in the United States. As result, the Anti-Chinese organization started to boycott Chinese owned business, and the Chinese workers were called coolie slaves and paupers. The Anti-Chinese protest resulted in the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. This act made most Chinese families face a quandary — either stay alone in America or go back to China for unification with family members but never come back.
In addition to early Chinese immigration, the Liberal Order was another main section of this unit. In class, we discussed the sustainability of this order in light of climate changes, financial instabilities and transnational issues. My point of view was that China is not a threat to America and the Liberal Order. Although China is rising rapidly, China is still cooperating well with the UN and constantly seeking peace. I think the complexity of the world is growing, and the United States can't control world politics by itself. America needs to participate with other nations to address world issues. I really enjoyed this unit, and I think this class helped me understand a lot about the relations between different counties.

2016年12月13日星期二

In this unit, I have learned the immigration in the United States. First of all, I understood the immigration generally in world before I learned this unit, because people will immigrate to China for different reasons as well as here. They might want a better life, family reunion and higher profit. I can also understand the hardships of moving to another country that you haven’t knew well yet, because I had this experience when I first came to America. It’s similar to the story of Monique, but my life was 10 times easier than her life. I had my family’s support and the help from my host family, and I didn’t need to worry about the incomes. I complained a lot about the struggles that I had gone through, such as communicating with different people at school, finishing the schoolworks, feeling sick with new foods and missing home. So I was really surprised and I couldn’t even imagine the struggles of Monique’s life, since she had to study the English within 2 weeks, but she didn’t even get enough education in her homeland that she could use to write or read stuff. She could neither use the public transportation nor seek helps from police officers. I think she must had a desperateness illness when she felt left out in this distant foreign which full of strangers. I think the only way to solve this problem is to give her love which includes friendship and family. She did overcome the challenges, and she made friends. So I feel pleased, when she said, “They speak Spanish,” Monique said, smiling, “and I speak English.” This unit truly helped me understanding the uneasiness of immigrants and I have more respects to these immigrants now.